The NY Times did a spread on blogging as a career entitled "Can Blogs Become a Big Source of Jobs?". b5media is heavily featured in the article. And I get my own little feature in there too, although they didn’t use my name. I’m clearly the "entertainment writer, who is also an editor", and can even say that I’ve pulled in figures this past month a few hundred thousand pageviews higher.

It would have rocked to be named in there, but it’s still great to have the reference. I think the article does a good job making the blogging-for-a-living concept realistic. It can be a great career, but as yet it’s not something you can just "jump into" and expect a full-time salary. Although many jobs are now being posted for corporate bloggers, as yet this is still usually not a full-time gig, but rather a part of another job title.

That said, companies like b5 are giving people opportunities to make money from blogging much easier and faster than before. The "network effect" means that new blogs and bloggers grow much more quickly, and you reap the rewards from your effort much more quickly than you would on your own. Couple that with not having to fuss about technology, and the benefits of being a part of a community there to support you and help you excel, blogging becomes much more of a feasible job opportunity.

Tags: professional blogging, pro blogging, blogging, blog job, job trends, b5media

A couple of months ago, we relaunched/rebranded a site we’ve had for quite some time as "the lingerie gals."

The Lingerie Gals is written by myself and a good friend, Gloria. We both love lingerie and writing it together has been a ton of fun. Especially when we get free samples ;)

Today was an exhaustive day in the lingerie world, with the release of the first pictures of the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show 2006. As amazing as always.

So, pop by and say hi and if you have a favorite piece of lingerie, or lingerie news, drop us a line and we’ll write about it.

Tags: lingerie, the lingerie gals, lingerie blog

Blogging Help has gotten a facelift. It’s a long time coming. Our version of Wordpress was quite old and stodgy, and the site was giving me a dark, unloved feeling. So, Ianiv gave it a rehaul this weekend.

The new design is simple. The logo draws from the standard Blogaholics theme, and embraces my love of white space. I’d love to stick a search bar and some feed buttons up in the header area, but it’s a start.

This blog has been really quiet lately as well. I take blame on that one. With my work pro blogging and with b5 as a channel editor, as well as my multitude of health issues, I’ve found it hard to teach as I want to teach on this site.

So, it’s time for a content rehaul too. I want to increase my post volume, but slightly differently. I will be including more references to posts I read elsewhere, in a link-blog manner, but with commentary. I think this will make me more efficient in showing you the best content for blogging - as a pro, a beginner or a business - with my professional opinion on top. This manner is very similar to just regular posting, but my manner of posting will be more efficient.

So, welcome to our renewal of Blogging Help. If there is something you need help on, toss me an email and I’ll try to help out.

The Blogaholics are for hire. It’s been over a year since both of us quit our "traditional" jobs and began consulting and working in Web 2.0. 

I started off first, going "pro" into blogging. My blog list has in that time jumped from 3 to nearly 20. I blog for myself, for b5media (also Channel Editor there) and have outside contracts. Additionally, I am Qumana’s Marketing Director.

Ianiv has, for the past year or so, been the developer of the new Qumana, building it into a cross-platform blog editor that is easy to use and has advanced functionality. Although he blogs very little, he is the man behind the technology that drives what I do, and spends a great deal of free time exploring and creating Web 2.0 technology.

We both feel it’s time for a change. A time to grow and explore and lend our expertise to other efforts.

Hire Arieanna: I plan to keep all my blogs and my role with b5media, but am looking to evangelize a new product. To work with a company to understand and internalize user needs. My goal is to "create a community of passionate users around a social software product or service."

Hire Ianiv: Ianiv wants to put his Web 2.0 knowledge to good work as a part of a team developing social software. He is passionate about helping people communicate and connect.

If you are looking for passionate employees or have any leads, let us know.
ianiv@blogaholics.ca
arieanna@blogaholics.ca

We are willing to locate outside Vancouver and will be in the San Jose area July 26 - 30.

You can check out our CVs (Ianiv | Arieanna) - or, better yet, browse through our archives here on the blog or ask around.

Tags: arieanna, ianiv, blogaholics, hireus, hire us

As an early kick-off for BlogHer, which is now 10 days away (I’m quite excited to network with my fellow BlogHers again), I am going to interview myself. To pre-introduce myself to the other BlogHer attendees, and anyone else who may be interested.

 So, hi :)

In choosing to interview myself this way, I am choosing questions that are more unusual than your standard interview. So here we go.

Why did you choose to share that piece of yourself in a photograph?

Getting married to Ianiv represented, to me, not just love but personal growth. To get married takes trust and responsibility and dedication. I feel like I have made great progress in my life and I am proud now to be married and committed to Ianiv.

The picture also represents an achievement of other sorts. Not just the stress of planning the wedding (there was lots of that), but of the year in general. It was the year we both quit our jobs and started our own business. A very public business, interacting daily with people around the world. So, the hands represent not only that achievement and love, but also the reaching out to the world through what we do together.

Are you and your blogging persona the same person?

I think every blog I write has a little piece of me, but some blogs get a larger piece than others. Blogaholics represents my "blogging home" - it is the place where I try to share "me" as if I were conversing with friends. Telling people what is affecting my life and what my opinions, joys and sorrows are. Not everything goes online - I make choices, and the act of writing does distinguish between the "online me" and the "me" in general. Blogaholics is the most accurate portrayal of me, but it is still yet a persona.

As we brdge out into my other blogging efforts, we find different pieces of me. Cooking Gadgets has my love for food and for baking and gadgets - but has only parts of my personality. She Knows Best has my love for shopping, for helping others, and my taste - but only in that area. Gilmore Girls News is an over-amplified version of my liking of the show. And then we move to my least authentic blog, Lohan Groupie. Following a celebrity who honestly annoys me, and writing in a style foreign to my beliefs. Pure profit incentive, nothing more.

So, when you read me, you don’t always see me. It depends where you go ;)

How do you use blogging to build friendships?

I love to talk with other bloggers. I often email back bloggers who left good comments and that leads to emails or Skype conversations. I use Skype almost exclusively to speak with other bloggers. Conferences have been a great way to meet other bloggers and start those relationships as well. To find new people to read and talk to, and new ways to express myself in my writing as a result.

My involvement with b5media has given my a very good opportunity to meet and work with some amazing bloggers, and to develop new relationships. At first, my role as CE was overwhelming. Hard to manage the growth of the channel and the needs of bloggers. But as relationships have formed, I have come to love my role. I act as friend and advisor, but I learn always from them and my experiences in the network.

If you had a super power, what would it be?

To fly. Oddly enough, I don’t like the feeling of free-fall - would never skydive - but I have always wanted to fly. To feel weightless and to power through the wind and see the world below. Freedom.

What is your favorite thing that you wrote? What got a strong reaction from readers? 

These are two different questions. My favorite post is the one that was hardest for me to write - I have struggled with the question of Canadian Identity, and identity in general, for a long time. I tackled the question in school, and again on the blog. I am still dissatisfied with my writing, which is why I like the piece. It’s not complete, but it is an expression of my personal struggle.

As for a strong reaction, it was my blunt honesty about a cafe that drew the strongest, and most negative, feedback I’ve ever received. It caused me much pain but reminds me that I need to be inclusive - to involve the people behind the story in the story, rather than omitting them. However, it reminds me also of the progress yet to be made by the corporate world in embracing open commentary.

Tags: BlogMe, BlogHer06

It’s been a quiet month on the blog. After the craziness involved in planning the wedding, we spent the first part of April recovering from all the stress and getting caught up on all our work. Now, we’ve spend the latter part of the month getting ready to go away again - this time on our honeymoon.

So, the blog will be quiet for the month of May. We hope to return to regular posting of a good quality upon our return.

We’ll be spending our honeymoon backpacking through Europe. Should prove relaxing and reinvigorating.

For an account of our trip, stay tuned to regular posts on Blogaholics.

Step 2 of the migration. Blogaholics followed on the heels of the Vancouver Coffee migration and is now on WordPress. What a sigh of relief!

Now the thousands of daily spam hits can be managed more effectively!

Well, proof positive that being a whiny blogger works.

No more massive theft. Obviously, despite not reading their own blog (and our rants about content theft in the posts they were stealing), they did notice my post about it. So, they took down our feeds and made this statement:

"I have now removed http://www.lohangroupie.com/feed/ from my sites syndication links after reading this article. All blog entries linked directly to http://lohangroupie.com using the blog entry title. The Blogroll did include a link to lohangroupie.com which used Lindsay Lohan News as link text."

Yeah, sure. 99% of people would have assumed it to be their content, so I consider that content theft. That, and we do not publish CC. So, phew it’s down but boy people need to learn manners.

Oh, and the comment was left anonymously, of course. So, I have no email to rant back on. Darn.

Tags: theft, copyright, complaining, nag

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Do you notice any resemblance here:

My site - Lohan Groupie

Fraudulent site - http://lindsay-lohan.emmv.com/

Yep, it’s the same content. Right down to the categories, archives, tags and even Qumana footer. Simple copy paste of every bit of code I’ve ever produced. And I’m not their only target. The Desperate Housewives b5 blog is in their net too.

So, we’ve contacted their DNS with a legal notice. And I’ve emailed Technorati to stop following their tags (since they’ve stopped picking mine up and are showing theirs). And contacted Google to stop payment on ads profiting from my content.

This, indeed, is content theft at it’s worst. The person responsible has put time, thought and effort into the practice. It’s a nice looking site. Optimized for ads, in many programs. Contains photo galleries, blogroll (not including my site, of course), and a nice header. Not like most spam sites that are obvious as to their nature. This one "looks" valid and honest. Even has the audacity to put a copyright notice on the bottom of the site.

So, we’ll see how this progresses. Mean time, everything I write will instantly go there. Frustrating.

Tags: theft, blogging, content theft, copyright, spam

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Today Ponzi sent a message to the Gnomedex mailing list announcing that the official dates for 6.0 are June 29 to July 1, 2006.

Arieanna and I had a great time at Gnomedex last year and we are really looking forward to the next one. For a while we were worried that we would not be able to attend because it could have possibly been at the time of our wedding. Now we just need to plan our honeymoon around it :)

Tags: gnomedex, pirillo, ponzi

When it comes to blogs like this one, the cartoon is completely accurate. For the rest of my blogging life, I feel truly lucky to share and learn each day as a part of the blogosphere. But, I do know too much about things I’m not interested in. ;)

From gapingvoid

Tomorrow and Wednesday I will be doing a presentation/workship for the International Internet Marketing Association (IIMA) with Tris Hussey on Blogging.

The first night we’re focusing on Blogging 101 - what is blogging, why should businesses participate, and the basics of getting a blog up and running.

The second night we go into more of a Q & A period on Advanced Blogging, for people who know what a blog is and may already have one. This includes some of the more advanced uses of blogging, and how you can tap them for more. We have some demos planned, like understanding metrics and getting custom feeds. More or less we expect to get a lot of business application questions, and that’s great.

Both nights are really hands on. We have a computer lab, some slides, and are ready to dive into some great demos. Should be very interesting. Not enough events of this type are put on.

I’m looking forward to presenting everything and meeting some new people. The second event is sold out, and the first one almost booked up, which is great news! It’s a cool turnaround from last year, when I first presented with Tris, and Roland of Bryght, on blogging for business, and really started to break into blogging.

At that time I was still in the corporate world doing marketing, and a blog, and not long after that I broke off into what I do now. So, it’s cool to turn around a whole year and see what I’ve accomplished, what’s happened in the blogging world, and where my confidence and understanding now are.

So, we’ll probably be posting our slides online after the event. I think some Vancouver guys might be event blogging it too, so we’ll have to wait and see.

I’ve been making observations for a couple of months about blog growth and the correlation with certain factors. For example, it’s quite obvious that more traffic means more feed subscribers - and this is a main measurement for me on blog growth.

Other factors in blog feed growth include being linked to by someone influential in the field, by certain large blogs, or even by more directories. Getting included in more search engines will definitely peak traffic, as will an increased PageRank with Google.

So, what accounts for those anomalies we see every now and again. This is what I want to know.

For a few days now, three of my blogs have been adding subscribers in the dozens… and I don’t know why. Traffic is on its same steady incline - no unusual peaks. No single article seams to be outweighing any others. No large links have spiked traffic. No new PageRank has come out. And yet I am picking up lots of new readers - which is great. I would just like to know why.

Any ideas? What else do you think could account for large growth figures in RSS subscribers?

It’s a week for blog traffic to escalate, it would seem. Early on in the week, one of my b5 blogs, Cooking Gadgets, received a link from Gizmodo (thanks to an quick email note to them) and was a featured blog of the day on Yahoo for Computers & Technology, and Food & Drink. I didn’t ask for the latter one - they supplied the directory information themselves, no less.

Well, the week of positive traffic has increased. Not long after that 4000 influx of visitors, Cooking Gadgets popped out of the Google Sandbox. She Knows Best is still stuck in, probably for at least another month, but that’s not the best of it. My other blogs, which have been quietly developing, all received the approval of Google too.

I have experienced the Sandbox up close & personal so many times now - it was the longest with Blogaholics, but all subsequent blogs have been in for shorter and shorter periods of time. It’s incredibly satisfying to wake up one day to more traffic, and more clicks. Even a PageRank of 0 is far better than one of N/A because it means you actually come up on some search terms.

I have one niche blog, from the bunch that are now out of the sandbox, that I knew was going to make a splash. And I was right. The CPM I already considered above-average has gone way up, with a CTR that I can only hope continues to be that high!

This has been a good week, and I love Google.

Technorati Tags: google, sandbox, b5, traffic, blogs, blogging

So, I’ve joined up with b5 and have a couple of new blogs to announce:

Cooking Gadgets - this one came out of a pattern I was noticing on Blogaholics. Looking through my archives, I found that the gadgets I was blogging every here and there were almost always cooking-related. So, it was a natural evolution of something I’m already interested it. It could be a dangerous blog for me, since I really do love lots of kitchen goodies. And I really wish I’d caught onto this blog earlier! Such a good topic!

She Knows Best - we can thank Jeremy for this one. We were brainstorming and he had this idea of a fashion/lifestyle-for-guys blog, and She Knows Best was born. It’s actually been a blast writing for. The comments - oh my! It’s obviously a blog that was needed! It’s so much fun to have that interaction, though. So far, I’ve been really surprised how much I can write about socks - and that guys appreciate the info! I have a few requests for haircut info, so I’ll be digging around for that soon. BTW - I have experience in high end menswear, so this one isn’t totally outside my realm of expertise.

So, why am I involved in b5?

Well, it’s a good question. I am not really a join-the-network kind of girl. After all, I have my own little projects and slowly growing list of blogs. I could have just started up these blogs on my own, right? Well, yes. Easily. However, working as a part of b5 has its merits. First, I love working with all three of these guys - Duncan, Jeremy, and Darren. Lots of fun. Granted, I would have loved to be invited in as more than just a blogger, but this is a good start!

Networks, in general, have many blogger benefits. First, they get a lot more attention collectively than a single blog does on its own. Plus, they have ongoing benefits of increased ranking from the interlinking. So, overall, they will make more money. Therefore, the fact that I’m not getting 100% of the revenue is less of a cut. Perhaps I’ll change my mind on this in a year or so when the blogs take off, but for now I’ll stick to that. Another network plus is not having to set up the blog, design it, or really manage all the tedious parts of it. I just get to do the writing, which is where I have no problem (if that wasn’t obvious already!)

I think, of any network to join, this is the one for me. The guys did a great job at launch time, and the attention has been great. It was fun for me to get back out there and have some visibility for doing something as well.

So, hope you go over and take a peek at the new blogs. And keep an eye on b5 - they have big plans!

Technorati Tags: b5, b5 media, blog network